Law: Briefs: May 3, 1982

Critics called it "religious gerrymandering." At issue was a 1978
Minnesota law that requires religious organizations drawing more than
half their money from nonmembers to comply with burdensome registration
and reporting rules. Mainstream denominations do not rely heavily on
outside contributions, so the law's obvious targets were newer
organizations like the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Though
Minnesota maintained that the law was a sensible way to protect the
public from fraud, Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, writing for
the majority, ruled that it violated the Constitution's establishment
of religion clause. Said Brennan: "This statute does not...